National Construction Week at CIC

National Construction Week 2006 (NCW), a joint initiative between ConstructionSkills and the DTI, was launched by the current Chairman of CIC and former Minister for Construction, the Rt Hon Nick Raynsford MP. NCW is the national not-for-profit campaign which provides young people with the opportunity to experience the wide range of exciting opportunities available in the modern construction industry.
The launch event for this year’s campaign was held at Greenwich Peninsula on 5 October. Greenwich Peninsula is located within Nick Raynsford’s own parliamentary constituency and will be the focus of a huge regeneration project over the next few years. The launch included a tour of the construction work being undertaken at the O2 centre (formerly the Dome) and Peninsula Square. This work at the O2 centre marks the start of this huge regeneration project. The centre is currently being transformed into a modern entertainment venue which is due to open in summer 2007.

As part of NCW, the ConstructionSkills team at CIC organised a major event for construction professionals in conjunction with Urbis, the museum for the Built Environment in Manchester. With the help of Architruck, the RIBA North West region’s articulated careers lorry, members of the public, and in particular children, could find out about the various professional careers. Young people were also invited to participate in one of the many practical activities inside Urbis which aimed to demonstrate the importance of the Built Environment and foster future interest.
CIC -ConstructionSkills then visited two local schools with Architruck. Over the course of the two days, 100 pupils designed and constructed a geodesic dome out of simple materials (paper, tape and batons) which could hold two people inside it. Pupils developed a wide variety of innovative designs and were very positive and enthusiastic about the opportunity to find out about the industry.

The CIC – ConstructionSkills team also participated in the Job Seekers Forum which was held at the Hub in the London Borough of Newham. A variety of talks and careers related information available were on offer to visitors to the Forum to encourage local people to pursue a career in the construction and engineering sectors.

CIC thanks all those institutions and their members who have supported National Construction Week 2006 and looks forward to even more events being organised to promote construction professionals in 2007.